STRaWBeRRy SaLaD

For some evenings, dinner is had super late, which is not healthy or good for you if you're trying to lose weight.  For me, it leads to a headache the next morning and the inability to get out of bed.  So, when those late nights come up, I decided that salads were the best way to go.  This is one I came up with "on the fly" and it turned out delicious.

Super easy - all you need:  fresh spinach leaves, strawberries, cuties (citrus fruit) and shaved parmesan cheese.  Lay out the leaves on each place, then top with cutie sections, sliced strawberries and the cheese.  Yum.  We served this with poppyseed dressing (one of our favorites), but I have found that blue cheese (also a favorite) works well also. 

Enjoy.

CaRRoT LaTKeS & FRieD ZuCCHiNi

When I'm shopping for food, I look at how yummy they look, then at the prices.  I find things that I love and bring them home.  That's the first step to me deciding what I'm going to make, but the when I get most of my ideas is when I'm cleaning out the refrigerator hahaha.  Every three to four days, I go through what's in there, just to get an idea of what I have left, and ideas just start popping into my head.

This time I found the bag of baby carrots we had originally bought for Easter dinner (at the next store we found the matchstick ones we needed and I still hadn't decided what I wanted to do with these yummy little snacks.

I had remembered that, in a couple of places online, I had skimmed through some recipes for carrot latkes and they had sounded yummy, so I decided to experiment and create my own. 


Almost a 10 ounce bag of baby carrots (I say "almost" because it is very hard for me to not munch on a few when I'm cooking with them)
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
6 green onions, diced
1/4 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs
2 large eggs
1/4 cup shaved parmesan cheese
6 tablespoons olive oil

Using a food processor, cut the carrots up into very small pieces.  Put them into a bowl that's big enough to hold all the ingredients in the end.  Then put the garlic and 1/4 onion into the food processor and cut them up into small pieces as well.  Add garlic onion mixture, diced green onion, parsley and parmesan cheese to the carrots in the bowl.

In another bowl, mix together the panko and eggs.  When combined, mix it together with the carrot mixture in the large bowl with a rubber spatula, making sure to get everything mixed up good.

Form the mixture into patties, kind of like you would make a hamburg, making sure that they are a little flat.  Spray pan or add oil to a pan on medium heat.  Fry the latkes for about 6 minutes per side, until they are brown and crisp.

Note:  I sprayed my pan instead of using oil so some of my latkes fell apart a little bit.  Next time I may try a little olive oil instead.  (My mom suggested I add mashed potatoes to keep them together haha.  I think that's because she REALLY likes potato latkes and wants us to come to a middle ground on these.)

I served them in a set of three on a bed of fresh spinach leaves with a little sour cream in between and some green onions, fresh parsley and shaved parmesan cheese on top.  They were delicious and very flavorful.

The fried zucchini was very easy.

All you need is 2-3 zucchinis, some oil and some coarse sea salt.  Cut the zucchini in half and then down the middle.  Cut each slice into about 4 or 5 (maybe more depending on size) pieces and put them in a bowl.  Sprinkle them with salt and let them sit for 30 minutes (this is important because it draws some of the water out of the vegetable and makes it easier to fry).  Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat (I had it at a depth of about 1 inch).  Add the zucchini and fry until the pieces turn a golden brown.  Put onto a paper towel so they can drain and sprinkle with sea salt.  Serve them warm.

Note:  They take a little longer to cook then I had expected, but worked well when I started them a few minutes before I started cooking the latkes.  Turned out delicious.

Served the carrot latkes and fried zucchini with a fresh tomato and zucchini salad.  For dessert, we had a lovely fruit salad.  A great meal that left us full without a lot of calories or carbohydrates.

TaSTy SNaCKS i'Ve FouND HeRe iN SaN aNToNio

(I have been promising this to a couple of people now, but for some reason putting it off, so I figured it was about time that I got around to posting it haha.)

Potato chips!!  I love potato chips, but so many of them fall short on what I believe a potato chip should be.  I want that down home, fresh fried/baked, potato taste.  What I have found always feels so  ... industrial.

But hold on ...

Since I've been here in San Antonio ... I have found the PERFECT chip.  They are SO good.  They're called "Dirty" All Natural Potato Chips ... and the only place I've found them at has been Sun Harvest.  They had been on sale for 1$ a bag and were one of the surprises my mom came home with for me one night (along with some beautiful blackberries and baby sweet peppers).  One taste of their Funky Fusion and I was hooked.  It has a hint of vinegar taste to it but their flavor reminds me of, well, three words:  German. Potato. Salad.  Mom and I both taste this flavor in it, but so much more.  They are, by far, the best flavor of potato chips I have ever tried.  She also purchased a Cracked Pepper & Sea Salt one which I very much liked, but she was not too fond of.  It has onion powder in it and you can taste that as well as the pepper and salt.  To me it tastes sort of like a posh Funyun.  We went back that weekend to take advantage of that sale by purchasing a few more bags.  While looking through the very picked through stand (we were able to get two bags of Funky Fusion so we were happy), I came across another flavor - Jalapeno Heat.  My mom is not a big fan of hot food, but I am, so I got one bag of them.  They have heat, but not too much - just perfect flavor and heat combination - and I wish I had picked up another bag.  It is the best jalapeno chip I've tried.  What I love most about these chips, besides the flavor, is the crunch.  They taste like you're biting into a fresh made potato chip at one of those restaurants that make them from scratch - slicing the potatoes and frying them up - and the crunch ... wow.  The crunch is loud enough where you need to turn the TV up a little bit more so you can hear it over it, but they don't hurt your mouth.  And if you're lucky enough to get a piece of the skin, it crushes in your mouth and tastes like the outside of a baked potato.  I am very very impressed.  Next time you're in San Antonio, make sure you find a Sun Harvest (there are two or three - they remind me of a small Whole Foods) and get yourself a bag.  They're regularly around 3$.


For those of ya'll not in San Antonio, I have a runner up.  They are sold at Wal-Mart and the brand name is World Trade.  The two I have tried from them are Spiced Sweet Potato Chips and Salt & Pepper Yukon Gold Potato Chips.  Both very yummy and both have a good crunch on them.  (There's a Thai flavor that I believe is from this brand that I want to check out next.)  They also have a peanut - Thai-Spiced Peanuts - that I would recommend trying.  They have a lot of flavor and, to be honest, I eat them with a spoon out of the bowl *blush* so that I don't waste any of that yummy taste on my napkin (they're definitely finger licking good).

What's great about both of these brands is that they're really not bad on the calories and carbohydrates.  They're a yummy snack to enjoy during your day.

Before I found these, my favorite chip was the kettle cooked ones from Lays (they're sold at other places, but I know them from when I ran Nature's Market at Kroger).  They have a really good taste and crunch - I'd say they are #3 on my list of really good chip - but they are rather expensive, unless you catch them on a sale or want to treat yourself to something nice every once in a while.  My favorite flavors from them are the Honey Mustard and the Thai ones.  Very good.  There are other ones to try - watch the sales because some flavors go on sale a lot while others (sadly the Honey Mustard and Thai are included in this) are not.

THe LeFToVeRS

While eating dinner last night, I kept thinking about how that salad would be really good on a Swiss cheese sandwich, maybe with a little lettuce, mayonnaise and the Maui mustard sauce.

With all my mom's talking about sandwiches ... and after watching her make her lunch today (a roast beef, Swiss cheese and mayo sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes) ... I was just craving a sandwich.  On a roll. 

Would it taste good, I wondered?  I couldn't WAIT till lunch time to find out.

Let me tell you now - it was more delicious than I had expected it to be.  And gorgeous.  I think I will make myself another one of these tomorrow.

By the way, if you're like me and my mother who LOVE Swiss cheese, but are not happy at all with the Swiss you've been finding (some of it really has no flavor at all) - go to your local HEB's deli section and try the imported Swiss.  It's a little more expensive ... but BOY is it worth it!!

eaSTeR DiNNeR ... WiTH a HaWaiiaN THeMe

Mom said she wanted Hawiian bread for dinner ... and the menu went from there.  And it turned out delicious!!  With a few leftovers ... the quiche was even better this morning for breakfast.  Yum!!
 

Hawaiian crustless quiche

Fruit & carrot slaw

Broiled shrimp with Maui mustard sauce

Hawaiian bread

And for dessert - Strawberry shortcake.  A perfect ending to a wonderful meal!

The Hawaiian crustless quiche (adapted from redbookmagazine.com)

4 egg whites and 2 whole eggs (because I had a bigger dish - a cake pan instead of a pie dish - I added 2 more eggs)

1 sweet onion, chopped

1/3 pound white cheddar cheese - we used an Aged white cheddar that we found at HEB (great flavor)

2/3 cups marinated mushrooms, sliced - we used HEB Harvest Moon portobella mushrooms with roasted red peppers, 8oz

1 cup pineapple tidbits, sauted

1 cup coconut milk (because of the added 2 eggs, I used the rest of the can of coconut milk)

1/2 cup parmesan cheese 

1 pinch baking soda

1 handful salt-free seasoning (your favorite will do)

First take a round cake pan and begin to layer ingredients.  Chop a sweet onion.  Add some chopped marinated mushrooms.  Chop up some thinly sliced white cheddar cheese.  Saute some pineapple tidbits until browned and add to pie dish.  Put the parmesan cheese on top.

Now for the eggs.  Take 4 egg yolks and 4 whole eggs.  Add the coconut milk, pinch of baking soda and the seasonings; beat together.

Pour the egg mixture over the other ingredients in the dish.  Place in oven (put a cookie sheet under to make sure that any spills are caught) and bake for 15 minutes for 400F.  Lower to 300F and cook for another 45 minutes.

Take it out and let it sit so it can continue cooking a little.  When it is set and browned it is done.  

Notes:  Because of the coconut milk, it was a little liquidy because the "milk" and eggs separated.  Next time I'm just going to use heavy cream because the coconut milk really added no flavor to the dish at all.  I will also omit the mushrooms next time, adding extra pineapple, because you could barely taste them and they sort of took away from the pineapple flavor.  I also think the next time I make this dish I'll use fresh pineapple.

Fruit & carrot slaw

1 cup diced fresh pineapple

1/2 cup craisins

1 10-ounce package matchstick-cut carrots (steamed first)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons maple syrup (we used a sugar-free kind)

1 tablespoon fresh pineapple juice (if you buy the cut pineapple at HEB, the containers usually have juice in them)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Combine the pineapple, craisins and carrots together in a bowl.  In another bowl, mix together the olive oil, maple syrup and pineapple juice.  Pour over the pineapple mixture in the bowl and toss so that it coats all of the fruits and veggies.  Add the parsley, salt and pepper; toss again.  Cover and chill.

Broiled shrimp

Broiling shrimp is really easy.  All you do is cut down the back of the shell on each shrimp so that you can remove the black vein and clean them thoroughly.  Then you place them in a bowl, sprinkle some olive oil over them and toss them so that they are covered with the oil.  Place them out on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper.  Broil about 7 inches from the heat for about 6-7 minutes, turning once in the middle.  I cooked them for 3 minutes, turned them and cooked them for 4 more.  Be careful not to overcook them - my shrimp were big.  (You can add garlic or other seasonings to the oil before you coat them if you would like.)

Maui mustard sauce

We used this for dipping our shrimp after we removed the shells, but we both agreed after that this would have been really good coating the shelled shrimp and baking them if we had wanted to do that. 

1/3 cup pineapple preserves

1/3 cup apricot preserves

1/4 cup spicy brown mustard (we used the HEB brand that you find over in the deli/meat section)

Stir together all the ingredients in a small bowl; cover and chill.  Delicious.  (We both ended up dipping the Hawaiian bread into the sauce as well - noticing the other was doing it after we had tried it haha.  Very good that way as well.  Would be a great spread on a sandwich, I think.

The finished product

THe VeGeTaBLeS THaT DiDN'T WaNT To Be a SauCe

Today I started taking a look at all my beautiful vegetables - in the bowls on the counter, in the refrigerator - and noticed that they were starting to turn.  I had to do something with them because it would have been a horrible waste of gorgeous vegetables to just throw them out.

I had tomatoes ... a bell pepper ... a bunch of those baby sweet peppers in red, orange and yellow ... some organic green onions.

After I chopped the tomatoes up, I put them in a bowl and sprinkled them with some fresh cracked pepper and coarse sea salt, then let them sit for about 10 minutes (while I cut the other vegetables up).

I decided to use all of those, plus an onion, several cloves of garlic (we are some garlic lovers in this family) and half of the grape tomatoes that I've been snacking on obsessively (I can't seem to walk past the container of them without grabbing two out).

I took both kinds of tomatoes and put them in a pot with the garlic, olive oil and some Italian seasoning; then poured enough water over them to cover.  I put them over medium heat, covered, until they started to break down.

When they started breaking down, I took the onions and sauteed them in a pan with 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil.

When they started to get a little soft, I added in the bell pepper, the sweet peppers and the green onions; sauteing them until they became tender.

I added these two pictures so you could see what the tomatoes look like broken down.  

At this point, it is time to add the vegetables to the broken down tomatoes.  I then covered the pan and allowed it to cook on medium for about 20 minutes.  (Boy did my living room and kitchen smell GOOD!!)

Seasoned with salt and fresh cracked pepper ... but it wasn't the sauce that I wanted it to be.  It was a vegetable soup ... which I was perfectly ok  with ... it was yummy ... but it needed something.

After looking in the pantry (and having my mother take a taste), we decided what it needed - a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano.  It turned out ABSOLUTELY delicious!! ... even if it wasn't sauce haha.

THe RaDiSH CHiP QueST - oR SHouLD i Say - THe QueST THaT FaiLeD MiSeRaBLy

With all of these radishes, the one thing I REALLY wanted was to be able to make some radish chips.  I love those crispy vegetables and I figured, why not radishes too?  After failing to find anything interesting to me online - I found one that actually told you to slice them, sprinkle them with salt and pepper then enjoy (how is that a chip?) - I decided to figure some things out on my own. 

Try #1 ...

Online, I did find one that said to steam them in the microwave for 5 minutes before baking them.  Ok.  Let's try that.  I mean, this person posted it online with rave reviews, so obviously she's tried it and loved it, right?  Hmm ... Radishes have a lot of water in them.  When you steam them, this adds water to them.  But hey - I figured, let's give this a try.  After I steamed them, I put them in a bowl with some McCormick Garlic Herb seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, cracked pepper and sea salt; then stirred.  I baked them at 350F for 10 minutes, flipped them over and then put them back in the oven for another 10 minutes. 

It was not crispy like I expected it to be.  In fact, it was not crunchy at all.  I cooked it for another 10 minutes.  Still very soggy.  I decided to lay them out on a paper towel, spread out so that they weren't touching each other, to cool - maybe they'll crisp out a little bit sitting there.  Nope.  They just became more soggy, limp ... chewy.  Not what I'm looking for.  Into the trash they went.

Try #2 ...

Mom's suggestion - fry them. To be honest, I didn't want to go there.  The point of this experiment was to find a way to make the chips - without frying them - so that I had a healthy snack - and so that I could try the same thing on other vegetables that I like.

I sliced them up ... and this time decided to let them sit between two pieces of paper towel for a few minutes to soak up any excess water.  I read a recipe for "watermelon radish chips" online that said that radishes needed longer to fry than potatoes, so i decided to try them for about the same time they required in their recipe, which was 8-10 minutes.  I fried some until they were really brown (almost burnt) and some until they were a medium brown.  The results:  Still not crispy.  Another batch in the trash, another bunch of beautiful radishes wasted.

Try #3 ...

What about baking them without steaming them first?  I sprayed the pan with cooking spray (the olive oil kind), placed the radish slices individually on the pan, lightly sprayed those with the cooking spray, then sprinkled the slices with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper (i like a mixture of peppercorn colors).  I baked them for 10 minutes, flipped them, then baked them for 5 minutes more, making sure to keep an eye on them so that they didn't burn.  At 5 minute intervals, I baked them a couple of more times, waiting for them to grow crispy.  I finally had to take them out for fear of burning them, but they were still not crispy.  I laid them out individually on a paper towel - and still no crispiness.  A good flavor though.  And, if you're ok with a little bit of limpness, they still have that good flavor when they're cold ... but still they are not what I wanted.

Am I destined to never have a crisp radish chip?  Is my mom correct that they are too full of water for this to work?

The only thing I can think of is to put them between the two pieces of paper towel and bake them with no spray at all.  Can this work?  Hmmm ...